Tag: Real Estate Investing

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Interview With Millionaire Real-Estate Investor Eden April Alemania-Dayrit

Hey guys! First off, I’d like say THANK YOU SO MUCH for the overwhelming response to the recent Rich Money Habits survey.  I am learning a lot from your feedbacks. Rest assured, I am going through each and every one of your responses.  This way, I get to understand what kind of financial information you are looking for so I know how best to help you. So keep them coming! 🙂

In fact, I have already gone through some of your feedbacks and a lot of them are requests to have more features on real-life inspirational people or leaders who set good examples in building wealth. 

To give you an idea, here are some of the responses to the survey question “What improvements would you like to see in the Rich Money Habits Series?”

“I would like to read about real life experiences of those who have successfully implemented the habits to wealth”
                                              – from Rod of Gensan, Philippines

“More examples of true to life stories. Testimonies.”
                                              – from Leo of Manama, Bahrain

The really great news is we have a very timely feature for your today to address this overwhelming request from our readers.  Lucky for you, I managed to get hold of the young real-estate investor millionaire, Eden April Alemania-Dayrit for an interview here at Rich Money Habits. 

I met Eden last year when my wife and I tried to invest in a private-lending deal for a real-estate property.  We partnered with Eden on that deal.  We have since gotten back our investment with the agreed upon interest income and we are very very happy with the outcome.  Through that deal, I have known how trustworthy Eden is, and that’s why I am very happy to have Eden featured here at Rich Money Habits. 

Without further ado, here’s my interview with Eden April Alemania-Dayrit.

1)  Tell us a little bit about yourself.  What were you busy with before you discovered real-estate investing?

I am a chemical engineer by profession who worked for semiconductor companies handling sustaining operations in manufacturing lines. Thinking that I will be an employee in the long run, I took up a master’s degree in Electronics Engineering. But on the last semester of the course, I decided not to finish it because that was when I began investing in real estate.

2)  What made you decide to get into real-estate investing and how did you get started? 

I got into the stock market and got burned in the mid-2007 market crash and hadn’t recovered. My boyfriend then (now my husband) and I partnered in a dimsum food stall in the place of his employment that later on included a waffle cart. It lasted for 6 months and we realized that food business is not our forte.

While still employed, I read books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and Think Rich Pinoy. These books inspired me to look beyond employment and pursue the path of entrepreneurship. We bought our first piece of real estate — a condominium unit in Taguig where we now live in. To save on acquisition cost, I applied as an agent. Little did we know that it was our spring board in our real estate career.

If I didn’t know how to cut my losses on other businesses early on, I wouldn’t have been in real estate investing.

3)  Can you share with us the story of your first real-estate investment property?

It was a Quezon City townhouse. We bought it from a bank at 50% off market value through an auction and paid a downpayment of 20%. It was then sold at 70% market value on a flexible term scheme (rent-to-own) after 7 weeks of acquisition.

4)  Can you give us an idea about the process you go through before you decide to invest in a real-estate property?

The real estate investing process is actually very simple. Find, fund, fix, sell then profit. But the real issue that most people have a hard time on is the thought process and deciding when to actually jump. I did the unthinkable — I quit my stable job. And that made it easy for me to decide to pursue the first property because I basically put everything at stake. It was a "now or never" decision that pushed me to do well. (Though I don’t advise people to do the same because that decision also had repercussions like I couldn’t take on a loan because I didn’t have a job that the bank requires to have that forced me to take on investors at the very beginning.)

5)  What’s the most important habit you’ve learned so far that really helped you in your real-estate investing?

I learned to listen to mentors. I am a stubbornly independent person and I find it hard to do things if I don’t do them my way. But when I agreed to be under my mentors’ wing, I had no choice but to follow because I believed in what they taught me. I listened intently until I learned the ropes in real estate investing. Until I learned it well, I then improvised. I still am stubborn, but I use that trait to stubbornly pursue the deals that I am getting into.

6)  If you can start your real-estate investing all over again, how would you do it differently, and why?

I’ve made a few mistakes along the way. Sometimes I wished that I could’ve asked for a higher price for a property or wished I didn’t buy a certain property. I sometimes thought that I should’ve set my criteria higher in selecting tenants. But these things were easily remedied and didn’t hurt a lot because I’ve set contingencies too. So if I could’ve done it all over again, I will still do what I’ve done because the small mistakes made me a better real estate investor now.

7)  Why do you think you’ve succeeded in real-estate investing at such a young age while many others struggle to even get started?

I’d say that age doesn’t have to do with it. It just so happened that I started earlier.

The main factor that hinders a lot of people from succeeding is one’s mindset. I always say that every basic thing that you need to know about real estate investing are all in the books. And you will learn along the way some techniques that will be useful. But all these will go to waste if one’s mindset is not on the right track.

This may sound funny but believe me, work on your mindset, get educated on the business and everything will fall into place.

8)  What advice can you give to our dear readers who want to get into real-estate investing?

I get a few questions like, “We are looking at the same lists in banks and newspapers, how do you spot good deals?” I’d always say, start by familiarizing yourself with the prices of properties for sale or sold in your own area or the area you want to focus on. Walk around the neighborhood and ask around, network with brokers and look at online sites where these properties are posted. Naturally, the opportunity will present itself in the form
of undervalued properties for sale or of neighbors seeking your help in selling their property.

I describe myself as a perennial student because I continually enroll in classes for self improvement. Invest on yourself by attending courses or seminars specific or supplementary to real estate investing.

Seek mentors. Accelerate your learning curve by asking questions or partnering with someone who have done what you want to do.

Lastly, be persistent. Do not stop at the first sight of failure. At 24, I overcame barriers and accomplished a feat that I haven’t even dreamed of myself–all because of my persistence, and I’m sure you can too.

 

More about Eden: Eden specializes in real-estate investing through rent to own properties and dreams of helping create 1 million millionaires by 2020.  You can checkout her website at http://renttoownproperties.blogspot.com/ to find out her growing list investment properties.  If you’re searching for a house you want to invest in, Eden highly recommends checking out http://www.bahayatbp.com.

 

P.S.  Dear readers, I hope you enjoyed Eden’s story as much as I did and learned something that you can apply into your own situation.  Have you tried investing in real-estate?  How was it?  What other tips can you share based on your experience?

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real-estate

Money Summit and Wealth Expo Series: Real-Estate Investing

This is part 1 of a 3-part series on the money lessons I’ve learned from the recently held Money Summit and Wealth Expo seminar.  This series will cover the 3 ways to grow your money: real-estate investing, stock market investing and building a business.

  • Part 1 – Real-Estate Investing 
  • Part 2 – Stock Market Investing
  • Part 3 – Building a Business

Real-Estate Investing

 

During the Money Summit and Wealth Expo, I was lucky to learn from 3 very successful real-estate investors: Trace Trajano, Eden April Alemania-Dayrit and Noli Alleje.  Read on as I share to you those lessons so you too can start building your riches through real-estate investing.

 

Trace Trajano

Best-selling author of Think Rich Quick and Real-Estate Guru

 

Trace Trajano is widely regarded as the author of the best-selling book “Think Rich – Quick”, which he co-authored with Larry Gamboa.  He, along with Larry Gamboa share a dream to create 1 million Millionaires by year 2020.  This is a huge and audacious goal but with millions of dollars in successful real-estate investments and several students coached who are now millionaires, this is a dream not far from reality. 

According to Trace, real-estate is a good investment mainly for 4 reasons: income, equity, appreciation and leverage. 

  • Real-estate gives you income in terms of capital gains when you decide to sell the property or monthly rental from your tenant in case you rent it out. 
  • As you pay down the amortization, you build equity for the property.
  • Appreciation means as the price of goods increase due to inflation, the value of your property generally rises with it. 
  • Lastly, real-estate gives you the leverage to acquire a property even with only 10% down payment. 

Trace also warns about the risks in making money through real-estate.  He mentioned about the condo craze where everybody is buying pre-selling condos.  The reason he does not encourage buying a pre-selling condo is because it is subject to market fluctuations.  Real-estate markets can go from boom to bust in a few years.  Your money is also tied up for 3 to 5 years and therefore not working for you during this period.  He said, it is even more dangerous to use your life savings and securing a bank loan because you risk losing everything.  The bank can go after everything you own if the deal does not turn out to be as good as you’re hoping for.

Another risk you can encounter when you invest in real-estate is getting a bad tenant when you decide to rent your property out. Without effective screening of tenants and proper property management, you can risk getting a “tenant from hell”.  A tenant who is not only good at avoiding paying your monthly rentals but even better than your lawyer in taking advantage of every loophole in the law so you cannot evict him.

To mitigate these risks, Trace suggests  to learn the real-estate business first through Affiliate Real Estate Marketing.  When you do Affiliate Real Estate Marketing, you basically sell another person’s property first.  When you successfully sell the property, you get extra income through commissions.  When you are not able to sell the property, you would still end up building your buyer’s list without losing money since the property is not yours anyway.  When you go through the process, you will learn more about the real-estate market.  You will know what properties are selling hot in an area and what’s not. You get to work in the real-estate business without risking your own money in a property.

According to Trace, the goal of a real-estate investor is to make money from the property, NOT necessarily to acquire the property.  To achieve this goal, one simply has to find a qualified buyer, understand his needs and financial capabilities, and find the right property that fits his needs. 

This is where Trace’s eXtreme marketing comes in.  To do extreme marketing, you need to ask 3 things:

  1. Who is your target market?
  2. What is your compelling message?
  3. What is your medium?

Who is your target market?  What are their needs? Why will they pay you the price?  Landlords for example are mainly concerned with ROI and cash flow.  End buyers normally focus more on the down payment and the monthly amortization. 

What is your compelling message? How will your message stand out?  What will compel prospects to call or contact you? You need to consider your target market when you formulate your message.  Know what’s important to them and deliver that message.

What is your medium?  Will you do online marketing? Or will you do offline like handing out flyers, posting bandit signs and the like?  Are people in your target market even logging in to the internet? 

These are important questions you need to ask yourself when you decide to do extreme marketing to sell your property.

 

Eden April Alemania-Dayrit

Rent-To-Own Specialist

Eden is the fastest and youngest millionaire Think Rich Pinoy franchisee.  She specializes in rent-to-own deals.  To this date, she has already bought and sold more than a dozen houses in just 2 years.

According to Eden, one can earn from real-estate in 3 ways: wholesaling, retailing and rent-to-own. 

  • Wholesaling is when you buy a property at way below (e.g. 60%) market price.
  • Retailing is when you do some renovations, flip the property and sell it for a higher price. 
  • Rent-to-own, also known as lease with option to purchase offers the tenant the option to own the property once fully paid. 

You can also earn through real-estate by becoming either a passive investor or an equity partner.  When you’re a passive investor, you earn a guaranteed 8 – 12% annual return.  You basically lend money to acquire the property.  As a return, they give your money back along with the interest after a few months.  When you decide to become an equity partner, you share in the profit like splitting it 50-50, but you also share in the risk in case the property is not sold or you get a bad tenant. 

The basic formula for investing in real-estate is Find – Fund – Fix – Sell – Profit. 

  1. Find a great property that’s below market price. 
  2. Fund it by using other people’s money through passive investors or equity partners. 
  3. Fix it by doing renovations to make it ready for occupancy. 
  4. Sell the property to your target market. 
  5. Profit from the property when you’re able to sell the property at a price higher than what you originally paid for it even after factoring in renovation expenses, paying back your investor’s money including interests, marketing expenses and taxes.

As you can see, the formula is very simple, but going through the process is definitely not easy. 

 

Noli Alleje

The Property Forum Founder

 

Noli is the master auctioneer who was once successfully auctioned properties worth around 3 Billion pesos.  Yes, that’s capital “B” as in billions. 

According to Noli, the auctioning of foreclosed assets started in the early ‘90s during the boom of the property sector.  When the Asian financial crisis hit, people suddenly could no longer pay their monthly amortization, thereby causing those properties to be foreclosed through “Dacion en Pago” (a.k.a. good foreclosures).  

In 2009, the Philippines had about 184 Billion worth of foreclo
sed assets.  The past due loans for the same year amounted to around 115 Billion pesos.  This means, there’s a big opportunity out there in foreclosed assets.

Why is it a good idea to invest in foreclosed assets?  According to Noli, the papers are generally (but not always) in order primarily because banks have a reputation to protect.   Because of this, banks normally would have to do some asset inspection, appraisals, etc.

Noli warns though that this business is not for the weak of heart.  The fact that it is foreclosed means there’s a problem.  When you invest in a foreclosed property, you need to do your due diligence.  You need to inspect the property in the morning and afternoon, at night and dawn, weekdays and weekends.  Take pictures.  Look for defects on the water line.  You can also ask the neighbors to find out more about the property.

In the end, you make money when you buy so you need to make sure you’re getting a great property for a great price before going into a deal.

 

That’s all I have on my notes about real-estate from the Money Summit and Wealth Expo Seminar. I hope you learned something to give you a head start in building your riches through real-estate investing.

 

P.S.  If you have a great property about to be foreclosed or you just need to sell your property fast, we can help!  Just go to https://akosiallan.com/sell-your-property/.

Categories
Investing Personal Finance Truly Rich Club

How To Profit From Real-Estate Investing Thru Private Lending

One of the main financial concerns I have been facing lately is the need to learn to invest and grow my money.  To solve that problem, I’ve tried investing through stocks, RTBs, and also started exploring internet marketing.  While all three have been a great learning experience so far, one investment vehicle I’ve never had the chance to explore is investing through Real-Estate.

That changed about 2 weeks ago.

My Very First Real Estate Investment Thru Private Lending

As I was browsing through the popular real-estate investing site foreclosurephilippines.com by Jay Castillo, I came across an article about the Trace Trajano’s Apprentice Challenge.  In that article, Jay and his partners in RYP Realty Team shared some of their experiences in the Apprentice Challenge as well as their need for investor partners to help them out in one of the challenges.  I signed-up right that instant and I’m glad I did since it’s been an exciting experience ever since.

A few days after I filled up the investor’s form, I received a message from Ebb Magtuba, the CEO of RYP Realty Team, one of Jay’s partners in the Trace Trajano’s Apprentice Challenge.  I met up with Ebb over a cup of coffee, and he shared his story on how he got involved on real-estate.  I also learned that RYP Realty team was the leading contender in the Apprentice Challenge.  To someone who has limited experience when it comes to real-estate, I felt a whole new world was opening before my eyes.

The following week, my wife and I met up with Ebb again.  This time, Ebb was with Eden Alemania-Dayrit, the very successful real-estate investor who was the one structuring the whole deal.  Both Ebb and Eden went with us to checkout the property that we would be investing in.

As investor, the opportunity was to get into a private lending deal that could potentially earn us a little bit of “passive” money, without us having to do any of the hard work of doing renovations, processing legal papers, as well as marketing and selling the property.

The 3 Questions You Should Ask Before You Lend Your Money

Before investing our money though, there were 3 things we were concerned about.  First, how soon can we get the money we lent back?  Second, what is the worst case scenario?  Lastly, what’s the track record of the other party we’re dealing with?

For the first question, Eden confirmed that we can expect to receive our money back plus interests in not more than 4 months, regardless if the property is sold or not.  After we get our money back, Eden’s plan is to use her earnings from her other successful real-estate deals to continue to market the property.  At that point, we would now be risk-free since we already made our money.

For the second question, the absolute worst case scenario would be us ending up with the property.  When you think about it, it would not be that bad at all since we would have gotten a great property at below market price.  Since we were able to visit the actual property, we already know its exact condition, how much renovation it probably needs, and how conducive the neighborhood is for home owners.

While going around the area, we also managed to find out how much other similar houses were being sold for.  So at least, we got some idea whether the price of the house we were investing in was within reasonable range. Add it to the fact that Eden was also able to sell a similar property in the same neighborhood for a higher price.  So in the point of view of the end-buyer/home owner, it would come out as a great deal.

For the last question, it was interesting that even at a young age, Eden has already done more than a dozen similar deals, some even in the same area where the property we were investing in was located.  She’s definitely not a beginner.  Even with her success, she still manages to stay humble and seek out the support of other successful real-estate investors like Trace Trajano and Larry Gamboa who continue to mentor and help her out in case an unexpected scenario happens.

Out of curiosity, I also asked her what was the worst thing she experienced so far as a real-estate investor and she willingly shared a problem about a tenant who encountered financial difficulty and was not able to pay up on time.  The good news was that even with that problem, she was still able to get her money back.

Ready, Fire, Aim

In the end, even though there’s a certain amount of risk involved, the answers to these 3 questions and the legal papers that support the “worst case” scenario as well as the integrity of the people we’re dealing with was more than enough to calm my nerves.  But as with anything related to money, only time will tell whether it is really a good deal or not.

At this point in my life, however, I would like to believe this is a very good opportunity to learn the world of real-estate investing first hand.  It matters not whether my decision will result into success or failure.  What matters more to me is the realization that I can be courageous enough to take action in spite of my fears and be willing to fail and learn to gain actual real-estate investing experience.

In all honesty, the whole experience made me anxious and excited at the same time.  With the experience, I have more reason to continue learning about real-estate investing so that I can manage the risks better in my next deals.

As always, whatever I learn from the whole real-estate investing experience, I will gladly share them to you through this blog.

How about you?  How’s your experience investing in real-estate so far?

P.S. Do you want (or know anyone who wants) to make 10-15% return on their money per year with little or no risk?  Fill-up the investor form to find out more about this opportunity.